As usually occurs at Local 384, the summer membership meetings were suspended via a motion at our May membership meeting. The Local sent out notices that are posted on the workplace Union boards, and if you look on this site’s Meetings page, you’ll notice the June, July and August meetings have been crossed out.

With a three month break from meetings, it gives us all plenty of time to plan on attending the next meeting on September 28, 2008. I hope everyone has a great summer and makes it out to the September meeting.

Wonder whose policies will actually help you? According to Business Week, McCain’s caters to the rich, while Obama’s actually helps the middle class:

• Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their aftertax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts, and those whose taxes fall would, on average, see their aftertax income rise much less.

• In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise.

Read the article at Business Week, and ask yourself whose tax policy will benefit you.

I’d also like to point to an item from the AFL-CIO Now blog about working single fathers. It points out a fact sheet on single fathers from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

A few of the facts cited:

• Among people living in single-parent families headed by a working father, almost 28 percent are economically insecure. CEPR says economically insecure means their income falls below the “basic family budget”—a measure of the basic goods and services needed to make ends meet for where they live. By comparison, among people in all working families, about 17 percent are economically insecure.
• Public assistance, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, public health insurance (Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and food stamps, helps single fathers take care of their families. Before taking public assistance into account, 37.6 percent of people in single-father families are economically insecure.
• About one in four men work in low-wage jobs, which CEPR defines as one that pays less than $11.11 an hour. The typical man working in a low-wage job earned $8.64 an hour in 2005. While women are still more likely to work in low-wage jobs than men, the gap between men and women is narrowing. Regardless of gender, the typical low-wage worker today earns about the same per hour, after adjusting for inflation, as they did in 1979.

Click here to check it out.

The problem is that the government is trying a program that will increase the weight limits of trucks on the road from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds.

Why is this a problem? Because:

“These trucks will have increased stopping distances, are more difficult to control, and will ensure faster deterioration of our nation’s roads and bridges. Some bridges are already in danger of collapsing. Our nation cannot witness a repeat of last summer when the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis disintegrated.”

If you want to add your voice to those telling Congress not to allow this hazardous policy, click here.

Incidentally, the Liberty Bell is where two Philadelphia area congressmen, Chaka Fattah and Patrick Murphy (my congressman), rallied with Wackenhut workers and SEIU organizers to launch the Wackenhut Workers Organizing Committee.

Read the story from the Philadelphia Daily News here.

Learn more about what’s going on with the organizing effort at the SEIU’s Eye on Wackenhut website.

During the 2006 campaign, I wrote you often about children’s issues. I pledged that once in the Senate I would make this a primary focus and that together we would fight for the health care, education, and child care that working families need to ensure that their kids can succeed.

So far, we are fighting to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program and we’ve introduced legislation to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten education (Senate Bill 1374). Today, we began the fight to ensure that working families have the child care they so desperately need.

Just hours ago, I introduced the Starting Early, Starting Right Act. This legislation addresses an enormous unmet need by increasing funding for child care, with the dual goals of helping more families afford care and improving the quality of early care.

This legislation has already received the endorsement of community leaders and advocacy groups. But it will not succeed without the support of people like you. So today I ask you to help raise the volume and show that our citizens are demanding change.

Add your name as a “citizen co-sponsor” to the Starting Early, Starting Right Act.

Child care develops America’s potential and helps both families and communities prosper. Children in high quality child care programs learn and develop skills they need to succeed in school and in life. Child care helps families get ahead by giving parents the support they need to be productive at work. And child care helps our nation stay competitive with a stronger work force now and in the future.

Working families and children do not have highly paid lobbyists ensuring their needs are met and their interests are represented. But, what they do have is people like you and me who are ready to fight and make sure that Congress does the right thing.

So again, please stand up today, make your voice heard, and add your name as a citizen co-sponsor.

Sincerely,

Bob Casey

Click here to add your name as a “citizen co-sponsor” to the Starting Early, Starting Right Act.

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”4

5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.5

6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.6

7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

And they’re running ads trying to convince unsuspecting Americans that collective bargaining should be as unattainable as possible. And why not? After all, millions of American workers wouldn’t want to be able to enjoy the healthcare and economic security we as Union members enjoy, would they?

But seriously, CDW is merely a front group for business interests that know it will be just that much harder to exploit American workers in a world where they have a right to the benefits of legislation like the EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act). That’s why they’re lobbying not just the government, but also the unsuspecting public to stop the EFCA from passing.

Don’t be taken by the lie.

The EFCA guarantees American workers the right to choose the benefits of Union representation simply by having a majority of workers choose. No drawn out, expensive elections. No corporate threats or coercion. Just the right of the majority of workers to choose what they want.

Now that you know it’s a lie, let other people (especially those who don’t have good Union jobs) know why the EFCA is vital to the economic survival of everyday people.

In addition to being aware of this propaganda and telling everyone else who needs to know, please consider supporting a candidate for President who will support the rights of working people to make a real living, namely by supporting passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. And continue to let your Congressional representatives know you support the EFCA, too.

Related:

It’s what happens when an employee suffers a workplace injury or illness and is given work restrictions. The company may decide you can still work with your injury, but they may modify your work assignment to comply with a doctor’s recommendation.

Often when this happens, a worker’s pay rate and work hours (i.e. limiting overtime) are modified as well. I’ve heard many reports from other workers - and this past week, I experienced it myself - that UPS management attempts to discourage medical treatment for workplace injuries by informing workers of the possibility of losing wages while on a modified work assignment.

What they might not tell you is you’re entitled to extra compensation to help make up the difference between your normal pay and your TAW pay. That’s under Pennsylvania Workers Compensation law.

If the company modifies your work or pay rate in a way that reduces your wages, as the victim of a workplace injury or illness you have the right to be compensated for that wage reduction. It’s just one of the many rights you’ll learn more about if you get a chance to read the Guide to PA Workers Comp published by Willig, Williams and Davidson.

Too many of us get bullied by management in this and other ways. They have a vested interest in not spending money on injured workers, but we can make sure they have an even bigger interest in making sure injured workers are properly taken care of. We can do this by educating ourselves as to our rights at work.

If you have questions about your rights as an injured worker, you can contact Willig, Williams and Davidson to get more information by clicking here.